St. Regis tribe lawyers meet with Pataki officials By JOHN MILDRIM Press Republican 08/25/01 ALBANY — The St. Regis Mohawk tribe’s legal team, driving the tribe’s interests through land claims, a Catskill casino and other issues with the state, met with Gov. George Pataki’s administration Friday in their first face-to-face in nearly two months. Details of the discussions were sparse but what could be telling was the absence of anybody from Park Place Entertainment, the tribe’s business partner in plans to build the state’s largest casino within easy reach of the New York City market. Among the four lawyers representing the tribe was Hans Walker, who handles the tribe’s sensitive sovereign land claims issues from Washington, D.C. "We can’t provide comment on the discussions that took place in the meeting but we believe the meeting was productive and quite successful," Rowena General, the tribe’s spokeswoman, said Friday after the closed-door discussions in the Capitol. It was as optimistic as post-meeting comments got considering recent developments in the tribe’s quest to build a casino resort at Kutsher’s Country Club just outside Monticello in Sullivan County. Two weeks ago, the tribe finalized a deal with Sullivan, getting the county’s blessing for a casino in exchange for $15 million yearly and other sales and land tax considerations. In recent weeks, Pataki’s top spokesman, Michael McKeon, recounted the tribe won’t get a casino deal with the state until the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs signs off, which could be months to years away. At the time, he again criticized the tribe for a move made more than a year ago when they switched from developers tied to the Monticello Raceway to gaming giant Park Place. McKeon added little Friday. "These are very preliminary talks, and we’ve got a long way to go," he said, declining to discuss specific topics touched on in the meeting. What’s more, the Catskills deal could also hinge on a final state budget agreement. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he wants the Catskills deal included in a separate deal the state has with the Seneca Indian Nation for three casinos in western New York. In the meantime, there’s still about 14,000 acres adjacent to and near the tribe’s Akwesasne reservation that the tribe lays claim to, based on a 1796 treaty. Whatever happened at the meeting, "There will not be any immediate announcement from the tribe," General said. - - - - - - Elkhair Selected as Indian Summer Festival Princess Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise 8/24/2001 Faith Elkhair has been selected by the Bartlesville Indian Summer Festival Princess Committee as the 2001-2002 Indian Summer Festival Princess. She will replace the 2000-2001 reigning princess, April Donnell. Elkhair will be officially crowned as the Princess at the Annual Indian Summer Festival in Bartlesville during the coronation ceremony in the Pow-wow arena on Sept. 14, prior to Grand Entry. Elkhair will be given a shawl, a banner that bears her name and the 2001-2002 Indian Summer Festival name, as well as a silver crown to designate her royalty. Elkhair is a freshman at Copan High School. She is a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians and also has ancestors from the Shawnee, Cherokee and Chippewa Nations. Her name is Petepanexkwa, which means "Woman who brings the light of dawn." Elkhair is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Elkhair. Charles is best remembered as the last Ceremonial Chief in the Delaware Big House ceremonies in Copan, during the early 1900s. In 1996, Faith was named Outstanding Poet of Coronado Elementary School in Oklahoma City. She has also received awards for Outstanding Citizenship at Copan Elementary and Middle Schools. She attends New Hope Indian Methodist Church in Dewey. Her favorite cultural hobbies are beadwork, stomp dancing, and making grape dumplings. Native American princesses are not true princesses in the European sense of the word, but are instead closer to ambassadors. Princess are given special privileges that include being some of the first people to enter the dance arena in a grand entry and receiving a chair of honor next to the emcees table. Princesses are normally selected annually so that the young ladies, usually age 15-20, may travel across the country to other Pow?wows representing the name of her tribe or organization. The criterion for selection is very stringent with emphasis on academics, leadership, life style, and tribal membership, participation and support. Being selected Indian Summer Festival Princess is a preparatory step for eligibility in the older age group princess competitions such as Miss Indian Oklahoma. . Indian Summer Festival has been recognized by the Oklahoma Tourism Industry Association as Oklahoma's Outstanding Event and is the winner of the Redbud Award. This year's festival dates are Sept. 14-16. The Indian Summer Festival is held at the Bartlesville Community Center in downtown Bartlesville at the comer of Adams and Cherokee. The annual Inter?tribal gathering celebrates the American Indian culture, customs, fine arts and crafts. Thousands of visitors experience the three days of dancing, singing, Indian food, stories and games. For more Information about Indian Summer Festival, call (918) 337-2787 or 1-800-618-2787. Indian Summer Is produced by the Indian Summer Festival Committee, under the auspices of the Bartlesville Community Center, a public Trust Authority of the City of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Major supporters of the 2001-2002 festival include the Arts Council of Oklahoma, Bartlesville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Allied Arts & Humanities Council of Bartlesville, Phillips Petroleum Co., Great Plains Coca Cola and ABB. - - - - - - Total Lack of Trust By KELLY PATRICIA O'MEARA News World Communications, Inc. 8/26/2001 "More than a century ago, a trust fund was set up to generate income for American Indians in return for use of their property. Today they claim that the fund's trustees - the U.S. departments of the Interior and Treasury - have bilked them out of $10 billion-plus. A gang of politicians and bureaucrats may have stolen $10 billion from the poorest Americans, and a growing number of people think nobody gives a damn. The official excuses for hiding federal records proving this huge theft include claims that a computer system, which to date has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, does not function properly; that paper records cannot be brought to court from government warehouses because of contamination by the rodent-borne hantavirus; and that relevant documents and ledgers known to be in government possession were destroyed variously in suspicious fires and/or intentionally shredded. All of which is why American Indians are not receiving income earned on their property from a trust fund begun more than 100 years ago under the General Allotment Act of 1887, which historical documents confirm was intended to eliminate the Indian way of life and provide financial independence to integrate them into the mainstream culture - an Indian version of the Reconstruction's 40 acres and a mule. To fund this adventure in cultural eugenics more than 11 million acres of land were divided among the individual American Indians but placed in trust to the federal government, with income generated from the leasing of oil, mineral, timber or grazing rights to be paid from the trust to the Indians. The authorities of that era did not think that American Indians had the education or experience to manage these properties or the substantial monies that would come from leasing their lands. Congress decided to have the monies held in a trust to be overseen by various federal agencies, including the departments of the Interior and Treasury. In theory, monies generated from the leased lands would be distributed to the landholders, making the Indians financially independent. In practice, today's 300,000 American Indians and their families claim to have been bilked out of an estimated $10 billion. No one denies that the money is unaccounted for. Finding it is another matter. Eloise Cobell, a banker from the Blackfeet Reservation in northwest Montana, and four other American Indians filed a class-action lawsuit against the United States in 1996. They sought to account for and recover all the monies due and owing from the revenues of the leased lands, based on historical records and data kept throughout the years. But the trustees - the departments of the Interior and Treasury - have been unable and/or unwilling to produce the requested records, going to bizarre extremes to withhold information confirming the huge Indian claims. Washington lawyer Dennis Gingold, the lead attorney on the case since it was filed, tells Insight: "We're talking about tens of billions of dollars that cannot be accounted for - especially disturbing given the fact that the trust was forced on the Native Americans at gunpoint. The government told the Indians, 'We're gonna take care of your property.' It's the equivalent of me pointing a gun at your head and saying to you today, 'Give me the keys to your house and your car and your bank-account information. You will remain the beneficial owner, so don't worry because I' m going to handle this exclusively in your best interest.'" According to Gingold, "The government has handled this lawsuit as badly as they've managed the trust account - with total disdain toward the beneficiaries. There is no single situation that comes close to this one in which a trustee has so abused the trust beneficiaries for so many years." How bad is it? That depends on who is being asked. Take for example the Department of the Interior (DOI), whose job it is to maintain the historical data on the trust lands, ensure accurate accounting and then turn any monies collected from the leased land over to the Treasury Department. Because of shoddy record-keeping and a financial-management system that is not integrated, the DOI explained to the court, it cannot provide data for an audit. In 1991, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that the DOI's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) had spent more than $21 million during a five-year period attempting to reconcile and certify Indian trust accounts. A decade later there still has been no reconciliation of these trust accounts despite the expenditure of an estimated $30 million to $40 million on a computerized financial-management scheme called the Trust Asset Accounting Management System (TAAMS), which doesn't work. But, when and if TAAMS ever is fully implemented, it is supposed to integrate all the various "modules" of the trust account. Not to worry. Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb tells Insight, that "We're pretty close with TAAMS. The system is an aggregation of several different modules like the land-title records. That's in good shape. Another is the realty module, which contains transactions of energy, mineral severance, and agriculture and timber leases that were integrated with the land-records module - which generated a user test with a 24 percent error rate. That doesn't sound good and it's not, but that was the first time we tried to marry those two systems." You see, McCaleb explains, "It's a complex system and we haven't worked out all of the kinks. But [Interior] Secretary [Gale] Norton has directed that we have an evaluation of the progress of the TAAMS by an expert third party. EDS [Electronic Data Systems Corp.] will provide a preliminary report of that evaluation sometime in September. We've hired them to do an objective and dispassionate review of the progress of TAAMS. We know what needs to be done, we know how to do it and we just need some time. Secretary Norton has taken a very definitive and effective action in this area, and our hope is that TAAMS delivers all the services and uses our users need and want. We just got our hands around this in March, and there's a lot to do. With new hands on board we're trying to get the slack out and the sails trimmed and bring this ship into port. We're gonna fix the problem instead of fight the litigation." Back on the reservation they're thinking about a war party of the kind that dealt with tea aboard a British ship in the port of Boston, and they're not buying the DOI's explanation that computer problems are, or could be, responsible for the theft or disappearance of billions in revenue generated from land leases. "This isn't about computer problems," Cobell explains. "It's about lying, mismanagement and corruption - and I'm up in arms about it. It really just seems that no one gives a damn. I think it's time that people start marching to jail for this kind of behavior. It is certainly time for journalists to let everyone know what is going on in this case." Cobell knows who she would like to march to jail. "Former interior secretary Bruce Babbitt and former treasury secretary Robert Rubin," the Blackfoot banker notes, "all had their fingers in it and . got away with lying to [U.S. District] Judge Royce Lamberth about crimes that their agencies got away with for 100-plus years. They're smart men, and they had 35 lawyers to our five. Unless something drastic is done - like personal sanctions - their successors are going to continue such behavior. I think it 's time to haul them off to jail. . They had no problem figuring how much was owed to the Holocaust victims. They can figure out this." Cobell explains, "The government has maps of who the land belongs to, and they would just have to work forward. All you have to do is go back to the original land allotments, but the government is trying to cover up its l iability, and there is a lot of the land that has gone into non-Indian ownership without records of how it happened. The government is full of crooks and liars, and that's what the headlines should read." Harsh words, and she isn't at all satisfied that the Bush administration is doing any better than the Clinton people did. But according to Paul Moorehead, minority staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, "The Indians' perspective of the administration is that we've done little more than shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. I understand their position. They've been through a lot. But everything for this administration has been accelerated, and they' ve had little time to get things going." While Moorehead thinks the Bush team should be given more time to get to the bottom of these long-standing problems, he is well-aware that the Clinton team did everything possible to obstruct the lawsuit. He tells Insight, "At one point it became the theater of the absurd. There were four documents found out West, for instance, that were said to be covered with a rodent virus and therefore off-limits, so no staff would handle them and that's why we don't know how much money is owed. Then, in the thick of it, when questions were being posed about the documents - like where they are, if they are secure, whether the government was doing anything in a coordinated way - that's when the fire occurred at the Suitland, Md., [National Archives] records facility, and it became sort of an X-Files thing. It went from being a kind of Keystone Kops incompetence to something more nefarious." Moorehead says that, before Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords' switch gave control of the Senate to the Democrats, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) was chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and "was riding herd on the trust-funds issue. Every conceivable angle was looked at - should we take the matter out of DOI altogether; should we bring more discipline to private investment of Indian trust funds? Innumerable bills were introduced, circulated, and I can't tell you how many hearings were held. I don't think there is a more frustrated man than Senator Campbell about what the Babbitt administration [at DOI] was doing with those trust funds." Gingold, lead attorney for the American Indians in the class-action lawsuit, argues that it is the landowners - the Indians - who are most frustrated. "We've been in this case for five years," Gingold explains, "and I've been practicing law for 27 years. Never have I seen anything like this. Records are destroyed at DOI at the drop of a hat, and I've never seen a case where lawyers and litigants regularly lie to the court - and not just the trial court but also the circuit court. Meanwhile, they regularly lie to Congress and they always lie to the trust beneficiaries." Just warming up, Gingold notes that not only has evidence been shredded while under subpoena but that "the special master himself had to save documents off the shredder at one DOI facility. Documents have been deleted on electronic systems, backup tapes have been lost in the thousands and tapes have been destroyed at Treasury too. But what is typical in this litigation is that lower-ranking people always get blamed for the wrongdoing. The people who make the decision and approve the conduct walk away." For example, the furious Gingold declares, "Take the documents that were destroyed during the contempt trial. On Nov. 23 and 24, 1998, the court held a hearing dealing with the production-of-documents request under the order which ultimately was found to be violated and was the basis for the contempt finding for former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin and former DOI secretary Bruce Babbitt. On Nov. 23, Treasury started destroying documents. At the end of January the contempt trial concluded and the destruction of the documents stopped. I believe in coincidences. I believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. I just don't believe this was a coincidence." Continuing, Gingold says, "This is a cover-up, it's a whitewash, and it ignores the tough questions. I wish I had the answers to why it's happening. We've heard lots of things that we can't corroborate. We've heard from former and present BIA officials that Indian trust monies have been used to help bail out the Chrysler Corporation. We've heard the money was used to bail out Penn Central and the City of New York. . The money that has been earned on those lands is substantial, so where did it go? Only one thing is clear: The only reason anything is happening in this case is that a tough federal judge has said this isn't going to happen anymore. Judge Royce Lamberth is the best thing that has happened to the Native Americans in 200 years. We're now seeking a receiver to take over. Every standard that's ever been used to appoint a receiver is met in this case. You have deception, destruction of evidence, loss of trust funds and refusal to comply with court orders. I don't think there's a single standard that hasn't been violated here." What's at stake if Lamberth decides the DOI isn't capable of handling this problem and gives control to a receiver? Plenty. According to Gingold, "Interior wouldn't like this because the Indian trust monies are its principle source of money and power. Lose the trust and the attendant power and it raises questions about whether you even need a DOI. No government agency ever would give up that kind of power because that's what's most important in Washington." While Gingold waits for Lamberth's decision as to whether the DOI will remain in control of the Indian trusts, Interior Secretary Norton says she is doing her best. She assures Insight that her goal is to "put together a trust-reform management team and implementation strategy that will meet challenges head-on, solve problems one-by-one and leave a legacy of milestones met and tasks accomplished. It's a priority of the Bush administration to move Indian trust systems into the 21st century and identify and implement a method to make a historical accounting that will be funded by the Congress and is acceptable to the court." After more than 100 years of dishonesty, who can blame American Indians for being dubious? But Washington insiders see this as an opportunity for the Bush administration to take the heat off their appointments at DOI and begin asking Democratic celebrities, including Babbitt and Rubin, what happened to that unaccounted for $10 billion-plus." -------------------------------- Reservation is a refuge from racism BY LYNDA McDONNELL Pioneer Press August 27, 2001 RED LAKE, Minn. -- Cutting up through the center of Minnesota on U.S. 10, I pass stands selling sweet corn and sweet red onions. Irrigation machines shoot water onto fields that still lag behind schedule. The heat index has climbed above 100. On the second day of my trip to hear what issues matter most to Minnesotans, I'm headed straight up the state's middle -- past the shopping malls and factories of St. Cloud, farm fields and strip joints near Motley, the resorts and lakes of Brainerd and Bemidji. My journey will take me to the Red Lake Indian Reservation, a nation within a state, whose citizens have an unusually long view of Minnesota's well-being. POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION It's evident when I enter the homeland of the Red Lake band of Chippewa. The forest grows thicker, and a sign warns that outside businesses should register with the tribe or risk having their property seized. At the end of dirt driveways, small houses are scattered behind trees. The wreckage of old cars and appliances are scattered on front lawns like the arks of some lost civilization, their worth known only to their owners. At one house among a small cluster of homes next to Minnesota 89, Delores Lasley's teen-age grandchildren sit outside on lawn chairs, keeping vigil with the remains of the day's garage sale. A tape of Indian drums plays from an old van. What's the state's most important issue? They groan like students facing a pop quiz and send me inside to speak with their grandmother, a tribal elder. Inside, where the adults visit and a newborn rocks, Ron Cobenais has a ready answer: "Address racial discrimination." With his long tail of dark hair and his muscle shirt, he describes store clerks who serve whites before Indians, and cops who ticket cars with Red Lake plates for speeding as they let white drivers pass. "They follow them around in the stores, thinking they're going to steal," Delores Lasley adds. What can the state do? "Educate people about respect, about human relations," suggests Cobenais. TALKING ABOUT RACE More often than I expect, Minnesotans mention racial tensions as a concern. Sometimes, it is Lasley's and Cobenais' view -- police and shopkeepers unfairly target racial minorities. More often, it's white Minnesotans who mention race, not as a primary concern, but something new, strange and worrisome. In North Branch, a grandmother visiting from Long Prairie notes that Mexican workers have been lured to jobs at turkey-processing plants in her hometown. There are fights between Mexicans and local whites, she says. "I know the crime rate has gone up." A few miles outside Cambridge, a used-car salesman complains that when there are racial incidents at the local high school, the white kids are always blamed. School officials "don't know how to deal with it," he says. In Moorhead, a black woman fired from her job as a nursing assistant is convinced that her boss was prejudiced. In Eagan, the pugnacious mayor alleges that problems in a low-income apartment complex are caused by fights between American and African blacks. As the land of Lake Wobegon becomes more diverse, many Minnesotans are uneasy with the change. For members of the Red Lake band, the vast reservation that arcs around Upper and Lower Red Lake is an oasis against suspicion and resentment. Here, the tribe runs its own schools and police force. Although unemployment remains high, casinos in Warroad, Thief River Falls and Red Lake, as well as a housing factory on the reservation, provide some income and jobs. Seated in a recliner beneath photos of two daughters and a grandson who served in the military, Delores Lasley says her concerns for Minnesota focus close to home. She cites the local economy: "It's gotten better. That doesn't mean it's great. There are jobs available if the people want to work." As more band members move back to the reservation (the population reached 5,162 last year, up from 3,699 in 1990), "we don't have housing." When I leave, one of Lasley's grandchildren has thought of an answer to my question. "The schools should have more metal detectors, because of the school shootings," says Aleisha Pemberton, 14. Metal detectors? Here, in this quiet place, of lakes, woods, Indian sovereignty? When she went to school in Bemidji, Aleisha explains, a student brought a gun to school. And a few miles away in the tiny town of Red Lake, the new building that looks like a school is actually a criminal justice center. Even here, the larger world intrudes. CHAIRMAN SEES CHALLENGES In the hall next to the Red Lake casino, tribal chairman Bobby Whitefeather stands onstage, thanking high-school students from churches across the Midwest who spent the past few weeks doing volunteer work on the reservation. They eat walleye pulled from Red Lake and laugh at his wry remarks. The compactly built, dark-haired chairman acknowledges the reservation's problems -- high unemployment and dropout rates, alcoholism and drug use. "We had a real good system before we were intruded on," he says, urging the students to read about the history and contributions of American Indians. He ends his remarks by urging "any of you who are well-connected'' to tell people that Red Lake needs jobs. Later, the 52-year-old leader sips on diet soda and chooses his words carefully. He doesn't speak of "problems" but of "challenges," because "a challenge is something you can achieve" while a problem is something you fix. But the challenges are significant. To Whitefeather, the failure of reservation students to attend school, and the failure of parents to work, reflects "generational dependency perpetuated by the United States government" with welfare programs that have served the band poorly because they fostered need and failed to build a private economy on the reservation. "There's got to be pride," he says. For the same reason, he has misgivings about Congress' decision to exempt reservations from welfare time limits when unemployment is above 50 percent. "The way I consoled myself with this is, "OK, we'll buy some time.' " Whitefeather places his hope in the future. He envisions building capacity among tribal members to manage growth and using the money from casinos and settlement of a treaty case against the federal government to change reservation culture to stress self-reliance and pride in work. "It's going to take some education and some patience," he says. FOREST DREAMS One dream is to use the band's resources to create jobs restoring the forest to pristine splendor. "In 150 years, we'll have a magnificent forest," he says. One fear is that political opposition grows as tribes prosper: "As soon as we start to get economic power and economic muscle, it's "These Indians can't do that.' So now we're seen as a threat." Whitefeather had heart bypass surgery in the spring and is worn out more easily by days like this, still talking at 8 p.m. with a visiting reporter. But he takes a moment more to answer my initial question. What's the most important issue for maintaining Minnesota's quality of life? "Investment in education. That's going to be our legacy for people in our lifetime." In Whitefeather's judgment, Minnesota's not doing very well. "Right now, there's a frenzy of the now and the present. The frenzy to feed the gratification of the instant rebate got so strong. I'm afraid over the long run, our children will have to pay for that." The sky is dark and a steady rain falls as I leave. Roseau is 100 miles northwest, and the trip is slowed by pelting rain and long, lonely stretches of road without houses, cars or lights. The terrain changes from forest and lake to flat, sodden farmland. I have come to yet another country. - - - - - - Dig offers view of prehistory By Jason Kandel The Daily News August 27, 2001 CHATSWORTH -- Archaeologists have unearthed bone fragments in 32 American Indian burial sites in Dayton Canyon, Los Angeles County coroner's officials said. Archaeologists, working for a company planning to build a 150-home subdivision at the 100-acre site, discovered the bones in individual graves during the last month. "They're prehistoric," said Los Angeles County Coroner's Office investigator Lt. Dave Smith, whose office is called out by archaeologists any time human remains are found. "We told them to carry on." Archaeologists could not immediately estimate how old the bones are but plan to test the bones to determine their age. Development at the site near Valley Circle and Roscoe boulevards has been halted while an archaeological excavation takes place. The dig is expected to wrap up in the next two weeks. Beverly Folkes, a Fernandeno Indian who is believed to be a descendant of the tribe that lived on the land until European conquest, is watching the excavation for the California Native American Heritage Commission. "It's sad to me that I am continually having to defend the sacredness of remains," Folkes said. "The only concern to me is the safe reburial of the remains." Officials of the commission, which negotiates with archaeologists for a timely reburial of the remains, called the find significant because of the number of remains found. "Typically we hear about one burial discovered at a time," said Rob Wood, an associate governmental program analyst for the commission. Wendy Teeter, a curator of archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Fowler Museum, said it's an important find because of the rarity of undeveloped land in the region. "These sites are becoming endangered species because development keeps plowing over them," she said. "All of these sites are significant, in so far as there are so few left." Archaeologists expect to get a representative sample of what's in the ground so they can project who left the remains behind and how they lived. A report on the excavation could take a year to complete. Through the decades, archaeologists have studied the area and have found stone tools and other artifacts. Archaeologists are studying the possibility that the bones could have been from a mixed tribe of Chumash and the Fernandeno, whose people were bilingual. As part of mitigation measures to reduce the impacts of the building, the developer, SunCal Inc. of Chatsworth, has hired Orange County archaeology company RMW Paleo Associates to perform the excavation, retrieve the materials and analyze them at labs across the Southland. But several people involved in the excavation were reluctant to talk about this discovery because of security concerns. Officials for SunCal did not return repeated calls for comment. A chain-link fence now surrounds the site, and a private security firm keeps watch over the property. As part of the mitigation measures outlined in the final environmental impact report for the Dayton Canyon project, archaeologists are required to excavate the site before bulldozers and other heavy machinery begin clawing into the ground. After the excavation is complete and a grading permit issued by the city Planning Department, an archaeologist will remain on site to monitor grading operations. - - - - - - Indian culture is on display SOCIETY TURNS SPOTLIGHT ON COUNTY'S NATIVES By Pam Mansell Lawrence Co. Herald Aug. 26, 2001 New Castle, PA - If your routine is starting to seem more rut-like than fun, try something new -- like a visit to the Lawrence County Historical Society, New Castle, to see the fascinating Kuskuskee exhibit. The four-room exhibit, a study of Native American Culture in Lawrence County, opened in January and will run through this year. It starts with the prehistoric periods of the area and has literally thousands of artifacts, from arrowheads to headdresses. Bob Presnar, director of the LCHS for the past two years, said the extensive exhibit took at least a year to research and plan. "People from all over the county lent items from their collections," he said. Some of the oldest items on display are from the mound builders who inhabited the Edinburg area from around 1000 B.C. to 500 A.D. "Lawrence County is probably the farthest east they went," Presnar said. "We don't know a lot about these people." Much of the exhibit is devoted to the Delaware tribe, who were here in "big numbers" in the 1700s, Presnar said. Delaware was the name that English settlers gave the tribe, but this Native American group of people were really the Lenni-Lenape tribe, or "genuine people." They lived in what is now Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In 1682 they signed a treaty of friendship with William Penn, but in spite of the treaty, European settlers continued to take Indian land as the United States became more populated, and the Delaware tribe was pushed inexorably westward. By the early 1800s, the Delaware had virtually disappeared from the eastern part of the United States. The Kuskuskee exhibit details the life and influence of the Native Americans in Lawrence County, and also depicts the changes around them that led to their end. "The first phase in the decline of the Native Americans was European trade," Presnar said. "They gradually forgot their own traditions." In its heyday, though, the Kuskuskee villages in the area were a thriving hub of commerce, Presnar said. The Iroquois, Seneca, and Huron tribes all traded with the Delaware, whose chief, King Beaver, held court in the area. "I was kind of nervous early on (about the exhibit)," Presnar said. "I didn't know if we'd have the artifacts to do it." That concern proved to be unfounded. There is an astonishing variety of stoneware, pottery, shields, spears, cavalry uniforms, and Native American dress. Presnar said more items were still coming in, making the display a changing one. The Historical Society is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and all tours of the exhibit are guided. The exhibit will be open until January, 2002. For more information, call the Lawrence County Historical Society at (724) 658-4022. - - - - - - Brazil Indigenous Leader Assassinated .c The Associated Press 08-24-01 RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Gunmen shot and killed an Indian leader in an ambush on a reservation in northeastern Brazil, police and an activist groups said Friday. Francisco de Assis Santana, 56, a Xukuru Indian also known as Chico Quele, was hit Thursday morning with two blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun near the village of Pe de Serra, Pernambuco state police said. The Catholic Church-linked Indigenous Missionary Council said Santana was on a list of Indian leaders targeted by some militant settlers resisting their removal from the Xukuru Indian reservation about 1,250 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Santana was instrumental in the Xukurus' long-running battle to have their ancestral lands set aside an Indian reservation, said Katia Vasco, a spokeswoman for the Indigenous Missionary Council. For many years he worked closely with chief Xicao Xukuru, whao was fatally shot in 1998. Tensions between Indians and non-Indians who settled on the ancestral Xukuru lands have often led to violence. Brazil's government recognized the 68,000-acre Xukuru reservation earlier this year, but nearly 300 settlers remain on the land, saying they want compensation from the federal government before they leave. According to Vasco, witnesses on the reservation said they saw the gunmen running in the direction of a ranch whose owner, Jose Cordeiro de Santana, they accuse of planning Xicao Xukuru's killing. Police said they were investigating the shooting and would not comment further. -------------------------------------- Tribal gaming battle hits North Idaho Fair Tribe collecting signatures in hopes of creating a ballot initiative to permanently legalize gaming operations Julia Silverman Spokesman Review August 25, 2001 Coeur d'Alene _ Most people come to the North Idaho Fair to scarf down cotton candy and take a few dizzying rides, hopefully not in that order. Not Laura Stensgar. Her idea of an ideal day at the fair is gathering as many signatures as possible, in support of placing the issue of tribal gaming on the November 2002 ballot. Fair season is ideal for signature gathering, a task only slightly tougher than riding the fair's mechanical bull. In order to place an initiative on the statewide ballot, its supporters must gather more than 40,000 signatures, from 6 percent of the registered voters in 22 of Idaho's 44 counties. The job gets even harder when the issue at hand is Indian gaming, a polarizing topic that brought the Idaho state Senate to a standstill during the last legislative session, before a gaming compact crafted by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and the tribes was ultimately defeated. The intent of the initiative is to permanently legalize current gaming operations on the reservation, while placing limits on the expansion of existing casinos. On Friday, Stensgar encountered devotees of the Coeur d'Alene Casino, who snatched the petition out of her hands and signed their names before she could finish asking for their support, and people who clucked about the inherent evils of gambling and marched away. It was a fair barometer of the kind of reactions that the issue might encounter in the voting booth, should the Coeur d'Alenes and the Nez Perce tribes be able to gather the requisite number of signatures. Cleo Stach, of Post Falls, signed her name with a flourish. "I like to go down to the casino," she said. "They have marvelous food. And you get tired of just watching TV." A few shyly told Stensgar that they had friends in the tribe, or that they had enjoyed this year's Julyamsh Powwow in Post Falls. Others said they wanted to sign on principle -- to support what they see as the tribe's right to do what it likes on its own land. "I don't really support gaming, but if anyone is going to do it, if anyone is going to take the white man's money, it should be the Indians," said Randy Lundberg of Sandpoint. Some people proved that the tribe's PR message had filtered through: The casino, they said, was providing revenue for area schools, as well as jobs in an area of high unemployment. Others peered at Stensgar narrowly, and asked just who was out there trying to shut down the casinos. And about 30 percent of the people who stopped refused to sign, some citing their religious or moral opposition to gaming, others mentioning their distrust of the tribe or belief that Indian casinos don't pay their fair share of taxes. "I don't agree with gambling, period," said Larry Howlett, of Coeur d'Alene. "It's an addictive behavior, and people's lives are controlled by it. You see people spend all their money on a chance, and they are just destroyed by it." Another woman said "I don't think I am going to vote for anything that has anything to do with the Indians," as she walked away. In the course of two hours, Stensgar and other workers at the booth collected about 50 signatures, which averages out to about 300 a day, since the booth is manned from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Some people declined to sign, but lingered at the both to tell Stensgar seemingly unrelated details: they were one-thirty-second Chippewa, or their son lived in Worley, or had once been gambling in Arizona and lost $50. Getting the initiative on the ballot would give everyone a chance to vote on the issue, whether they are for or against casino gaming, Stensgar said. "Some people have been very supportive, they say it's our sovereign right," Stensgar said. "Others say they don't know yet. We just want to get it onto the ballot." - - - - - - The wind can howl for days AP 26 Aug. 2001 BROWNING, Mont. (AP) - The wind can howl for days without taking a breath, blowing with a force known to tip over railroad cars. Leaders of the Blackfeet Indian reservation, where unemployment hovers near 70 percent, hope the wind has enough strength to carry off some of the poverty, too. The Blackfeet, who live in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains in northwest Montana, are developing what is being called the first commercial wind farm on an American Indian reservation. Indian leaders hope to harness what often has been seen as little more than a nuisance and turn it into a moneymaker for their communities. The wind farm, scheduled for construction near the eastern boundary of Glacier National Park as early as next year, could produce enough electricity to power 20,000 homes. Besides money and jobs, including an estimated 30 construction jobs and up to six permanent positions, Indian leaders see a field of dozens of tall wind turbines as a possible tourist draw that could help other sectors of the local economy. ``It's one avenue by which we can reach our economic independence,'' said Marilyn Parsons, the tribe's planning director. The effort is an example of a push by some Indian tribes to develop the natural resources of their lands - but on their terms. ``The tribes have learned a lot in the 20th century and they are looking for new opportunities in the 21st century and to be leaders in their regions for clean economic opportunities,'' said Bob Gough, secretary of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy. In addition to the wind farm, the Blackfeet are looking at opening up land within the reservation to oil and gas drilling. To the east, the Crow and Northern Cheyenne are considering allowing drilling for natural gas found in coal beds. And nearly a dozen Plains Indian tribes are interested in forming a coalition to sell the wind that blows across their lands. ``We can't continue to be poverty stricken,'' said Roxanne Gourneau, a council member for the Fort Peck Tribes, who also are considering potential wind and oil development on their northeast Montana reservation. ``We have to be in the driver's seat.'' ``We want to be partners in harvesting natural resources on our lands,'' Gourneau added. ``We don't want to be passive participants anymore.'' Tribes have allowed outside energy developers to explore the reservations before, only to believe that in return, they were left with deserted oil fields and environmental hazards to clean up. Indian leaders say they are being more careful to ensure the land is protected and tribes get a fair financial share. ``I think maybe a lot of people worry about something happening like it did in the '70s, when there's a gas and oil boom and they get nothing out of it,'' said Leo Kennerly, a Blackfeet tribal council member. ``I'm hoping if we do develop oil and gas here, a lot will go into economic development and creating jobs.'' Energy development, whether it is ``green'' power such as wind or traditional fossil fuels, is a ``front burner issue'' tribes need to consider, said Gordon Belcourt, executive director of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. But energy development is not without headaches for reservations, often located in some of the most remote areas of the country. On the Blackfeet Reservation, concern lingers whether there will be enough transmission capability to get the electricity to potential markets. And tribes are seemingly at a disadvantage when it comes to securing some incentives to develop wind energy. Since they don't pay most federal taxes, tribes cannot get a production tax credit that makes wind more competitive with other power, Gough said. The Blackfeet are working with developer SeaWest WindPower Inc. to develop the wind farm. The Bonneville Power Administration, which acquires and distributes power to utilities in the Northwest, also is involved and considering purchasing power from the project. Separately, the tribe offered to Anschutz Exploration Corp. the chance to drill on reservation land. The company had wanted to drill an exploratory oil well at a site off the reservation considered sacred by several tribes. Kennerly said the offer to drill stands for other companies as well, but the tribe is not about to sell itself short. The Blackfeet, whose reservation borders Glacier National Park and the Canadian province of Alberta, also have timber and water resources that could play a role in a long-range economic plan, Parsons said. In North Dakota, the Three Affiliated Tribes, a coalition that sees wind energy as a possible job creator, also is looking at wind generation as a source of electricity for reservation businesses and residents, Chairman Tex Hall said. ``Wind energy can help reduce (electricity) costs of each household but still provide a profit for economic development to generate new jobs,'' Hall said. Parsons cautions that change needs to come slowly, however, to prepare people for work and to ensure as many as possible can be a part of any financial gain. On the Net: Blackfeet Indian tribe: - - - - - - Victims of adult onset diabetes getting younger By SHARON SALYER Daily Herald Co. August 28, 2001 "While diabetes screenings are now being recommended for many people in their 30s, doctors here and across the nation say the disease is becoming epidemic among a much broader group as well: anyone who is overweight and doesn't exercise, beginning as early as adolescence. "This is a huge health issue," said Charlein Pinkham, a certified diabetes educator at Providence Everett Medical Center. "The youngest person I've seen is about 16 years old," Pinkham said of Type 2, previously called adult-onset, diabetes. "We used to think it happened to those over 40. For the last few years, the age has been getting younger and younger." The reasons: lack of exercise, poor dietary choices and sitting in front of the television or computer too much, she said. "We're in an epidemic proportion," she said of teens and those in their 20s and 30s now being diagnosed with diabetes. Pinkham said her formula for preventing the disease is simple: "Eat less; move more." Patients can be tested for diabetes as part of routine blood tests performed during yearly physicals, she said, with normal blood sugars ranging between 70 and 115 milligrams/deciliter. Dr. Jim Chamberlain, an Everett internal medicine physician, said the link between diabetes and inactivity among youngsters is so strong that it is sometimes called "Nintendo Syndrome." "What are kids doing now?" he asked. "They're playing video games or on the computer. They're eating unhealthy food and getting obese. "The same thing happening in adults is happening to them," he said, developing insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. Moderate regular exercise, such as daily 30-minute walks, and reducing dietary fat cut the risk of getting diabetes in half, even among those at highest risk for the disease, such as minorities and those with a family history of diabetes, Chamberlain noted. Screenings are recommended for youngsters 11 and up at high-risk for the disease, such as those with a family history of diabetes and who are overweight, have high blood pressure or are ethnic minorities, said Dr. Francine Kaufman, president-elect of the American Diabetes Association and a Los Angeles-based pediatric endocrinologist. The latest call for increased screenings involves high-risk adults between the ages of 30 and 39, said Dr. Claresa Levetan, a Washington, D.C., physician who helped write new recommendations from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. Diabetes increased 76 percent in this age group between 1990 and 1998, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those especially at-risk: Hispanics, African Americans, American Indians and Asians, particularly Pacific Islanders. "Diets have changed," she said of one cause for diabetes' rising trend. While food is now higher in fat, less physical activity is required in daily living to burn it off, triggering the disease. The goal of the new guidelines is to diagnose patients earlier, Levetan said, noting that diabetes can often can go undiagnosed for seven to 10 years. Some $100 billion is spent in the U.S. every year on diabetes treatment, she said, with $80 billion spent on treating its complications, which include heart attack, stroke, amputation, kidney failure and vision problems including blindness. "There are six million American who have diabetes who don't think they have the disease," Levetan said. With proper treatment, "the complications of diabetes can be prevented or delayed," she added." ---------------------------------------------------------- Two types: Type 2: Accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all diabetes. A disorder resulting from the body's inability to make enough, or properly use, insulin, which is needed to convert food into energy. Age, obesity and sedentary lifestyles are major factors for the disease. Type 1: Accounts for 5 to 10 percent of diabetes cases. The body does not produce any insulin. Most often occurs in children and young adults. People with Type 1 must take daily insulin injections. More information: For information on support groups and diabetes, call the American Diabetes Association's Everett-based regional chapter at 425-258-8116 or check the website at www.diabetes.org/ . Providence Everett Medical Center is sponsoring a free diabetes screening from 1-3 p.m. Sept. 12 by appointment only. Call 800-554-6600. Sources: American Diabetes Association, Providence Everett Medical Center ----------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - "Payment is nothing" Rapid City Journal: Opinions Letters to the editor Aug. 28, 2001 "I am happy to see the articles the Journal is printing on the Black Hills claim. I have had numerous conversations with non-Indians who simply say, "Take the money. You're never going to get the land back." I have asked several people who made that comment to do some role reversal. I ask them to put their culture, beliefs, families and lives on the line and put a dollar value to it. I then explain what happened to Indian people right here in South Dakota. I ask them how much the Lakota religion is worth? The money for all of the grief and disruption caused by the U.S. government and its citizens now amounts to about $500 million. Descendants of the L/N/Dakota, Cheyenne, Arapahoe and other tribes who are parties to the Fort Laramie Treaty number from 150,000 to 200,000 souls. If payment were accepted on a per capita basis, it would amount to about $2,500 to $3,333, an amount equal to a down payment on new motor vehicle. None of my non-Indian friends and associates would give up their lives for that amount. Too many non-Indians expect Indians to give up what is rightfully theirs for nothing." BOB BENNETT Rapid City - - - - - - Cherokees celebrate 49th holiday By ROB MARTINDALE Tulsa World 8/28/01 TAHLEQUAH -- More than 50,000 people are expected to attend the 49th Cherokee National Holiday this weekend, tribal officials said Monday. The celebration marks the anniversary of the signing of the Cherokee Nation Constitution in 1839 after the tribe's forced removal across the Trail of Tears from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory. "Celebrating the Seven Clans" is the theme of the holiday, which officially opens Friday and will run through Sunday. Activities kick off at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the ballroom of the Cherokee Nation annex with the Miss Cherokee Leadership competition. The full agenda begins at 5 p.m. Friday with a stickball game, followed by a hog fry and the "Gathering of the Grounds," a traditional dance. The Cherokee National Holiday parade is scheduled at 10 a.m. Saturday in downtown Tahlequah. Chief Chad Smith will give the state of the nation address at 11:30 a.m. on the courthouse square. For additional information, call (800) 850-0348, Ext. 2544. -------------------------------- Details about a National Public Radio broadcast this Fall on Native American Sovereignty. - Special - {Note: Debate on Tribal Sovereignty. The debate between Kevin Gover (former BIA director) and Tom Gede (ED of the Conference of Western States Attorneys General) will be taped at the University of New Mexico on Monday, September 10, 2001 in the evening It is co-sponsored by the Law School and KUNM Radio. The event is open to the public and will be recorded for broadcast on NPR's Justice Talking (www.justicetalking.org ) this fall. Please circulate this information to anyone you think might be interested in attending and feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. For immediate release For more information, contact: Julie Drizin 202-879-6759 Senior Producer, Justice Talking Email: Jdrizin@appcpenn.org ] NPR TO SPONSOR DEBATE ON NATIVE AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY ALBUQUERQUE, August 27, 2001-- More than five hundred years after Columbus arrived in the "New World," Americans remain somewhat divided about the place of indigenous peoples in modern society. The question of whether or not tribes should enjoy sovereignty is one of our most contested legal battlefields. Should Native Americans on reservations be exempt from state and federal laws, including environmental policies? Can Indian peoples and tribal casinos declare themselves free of state and federal taxes? How do we balance constitutional rights with treaty obligations? These questions will form the basis of a debate between former Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Director Kevin Gover and Tom Gede, Executive Director of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. The debate will be held Monday, September 10, 2001 at 7:30 pm before a live audience at the Continuing Education Conference Center (1634 University Boulevard, NE) in Albuquerque. Justice Talking is a weekly National Public Radio program on constitutional issues, hosted by Margot Adler and produced by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Justice Talking is broadcast on public radio stations nationwide and on the Internet at www.justicetalking.org . This debate, Nations Within: The Conflict of Native American Sovereignty is co-sponsored by KUNM Radio (89.9FM), and the University of New Mexico School of Law. It will air on public radio stations across the US this fall. The event is free and open to the public, which will have the opportunity to ask questions during the event. - - - - - - Parade may drop 'Columbus' By GWEN FLORIO Denver Post August 29, 2001 "There's a bit of hope for a compromise in the Columbus Day standoff - but like everything else connected to Denver's celebration of the national holiday, it's problematic. C.M. Mangiaracina, the man who helped reinstate the Denver parade last year after a long hiatus, says he's open to dropping Columbus' name from the event this October, a key demand of Columbus Day opponents. As the sole permit holder for this year's parade, Mangiaracina can call it whatever he wants. Parade organizers made the same offer before last year's event, only to back out at the last minute. Although the parade had few references to Columbus, protesters blocked the path and were arrested. This year, Mangiaracina wants the city to create an Italian-American History Month in exchange for dropping Columbus' name from the parade. "You want to take something from me?" he said. "Well, give me something in return." Latina activist Nita Gonzalez, who has discussed the plan with Mangiaracina, said that's fine with her - although she hastened to add she has not presented the offer to other members of the various groups who oppose the parade. Indian group wary But Glenn Morris of the American Indian Movement said last year's rancorous talks left him wary. "C.M. said a lot of things last year, all of which he betrayed. So I have no reason to believe he's any more credible this year." Still, both Morris and Gonzalez reiterated that they had no objections to commemorations of Italian heritage. If the Oct. 8 parade were held simply to celebrate Italian-American pride, Gonzalez said, "we would march and we would support it." But some Italian-Americans would not. "Never," said George Vendegnia of the Sons of Italy/New Generation Lodge, who helped organize last year's parade. "It's not up for negotiation by me or Mr. Mangiaracina." But city Public Safety Director Ari Zavaras said it would be a simple matter - and Mangiaracina's right, as permit holder - to drop the words "Columbus Day." "The only thing I would wonder about then is whether it would be a one-person parade," he said. Vendegnia vowed that's exactly what would happen. The parade permit was made in Mangiaracina's name only, and he labeled it the "Columbus Day Italian Pride Parade," describing it as "an annual parade to celebrate cultural diversity ... held in conjunction with a cultural holiday." Vendegnia said he applied about 10 days ago to hold a separate parade on Columbus Day but has yet to receive approval. Generally, the city does not award permits for more than one parade per day. Opponents plan march Holiday opponents are planning a Four Directions march on Oct. 6, a Saturday, and a Day of Spiritual Union on Sunday, both of which celebrate all ethnicities. "If C.M. wants to get on the transform-Columbus-Day train, then there's a seat for him," Morris said. Mangiaracina said he believed that Columbus' name eventually would be dropped on a state, and then national, level. Last year's parade, he said, "was the last hurrah. I think if the words go away, there will be no protests." But he repeated his demand for an Italian History Month. Zavaras said Mayor Wellington Webb has the power to make such a proclamation. Meetings with Mangiaracina are planned, he said, and Webb is "definitely willing to sit and talk." "On the strength of what happened last year, we'd obviously be very careful in what sorts of things we agreed to," Zavaras said, referring to the last-minute collapse of the plan to drop Columbus' name." - - - - - - U.S. Must Have A Presence At U.N. Racism Conference Press & Dakotan Editorial August 29, 2001 "As of late Tuesday, the Bush administration still had not decided what presence the United States would have at this weekend's United Nations racism conference. Administration officials must decide who will represent the U.S. now that Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced he will not attend. President Bush could send a lower ranking delegation to Durban, South Africa, or could choose not to be involved in the conference at all. The Bush administration is disturbed by the focus that many countries want to place on Israel. One administration official cited Arab-backed ''offensive language'' that accused Israel of implementing racist policies against Palestinians. There were indications of a willingness among some delegations to be more accommodating toward the American and Israeli positions, but a senior official said Monday night the administration was not impressed. The decision not to have Powell participate has drawn praise from pro-Israel groups, but has been roundly criticized by groups like Amnesty International and civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson. This country once again finds itself in the difficult spot reserved for a world leader. The Bush administration must find a way to fight the anti-Israel bloc that will likely attempt to control the conference without minimizing the other race-related issues facing the world today. By leaving the secretary of state behind, the administration has certainly made its objections to some of the content of the conference and has drawn some early concessions, although those concessions could certainly be ignored once the conference hits full stride. However, by not having the country represented at the event, the administration runs the risk of sending a signal of isolationism that could create further conflict and do little to overcome current and future race problems. Furthermore, there is little that can be done to defuse the anti-Israel sentiment if the United States is not present. The question that must be answered is who will speak out if the United States is absent. China? Russia? The United States must be represented with the full intention to help guide the conference in a direction that is best for everyone. Being a no-show is no option, practically speaking." - - - - - - Funds earmarked for reservation water project Billings Gazette /zclips.inc August 29, 2001 HELENA – "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has set aside funds needed to begin construction of an $11 million municipal water project on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Sen. Max Baucus announced Tuesday. He said the critical funding paves the way to complete the project by 2004. The Two Medicine Water Project is designed to provide a constant water supply and purification system for Browning and East Glacier, Baucus, D-Mont., said The project will depend on water from the lower portion of Two Medicine Reservoir. Baucus said a division of USDA committed $2.5 million to begin building the prooject, pending signing of an agreement between the Rural Utilities Service and the Blackfeet Tribe. Once completed, the treatment plant and distribution lines will be owned, operated and maintained by the Blackfeet Tribe." - - - - - - Seminoles dismiss Tequesta bank deal By JEFF OSTROSKI, Palm Beach Post August 29, 2001 TEQUESTA -- "The Seminole Indian Tribe has dropped its bid to pay $6.4 million for Independent Community Bank of Tequesta, but the Hollywood-based tribe remains the bank's largest investor. The Seminoles didn't tell the bank why they backed out of the deal, said George Igler, a Tallahassee lawyer representing Independent Community Bank. The Seminoles failed to sign the deal by Monday's deadline. Igler guessed that the tribe's political turmoil derailed the sale. The Seminoles agreed to buy the bank in December, but early this year the tribe's council forced out Chairman James Billie. Tribal leaders questioned his far-flung investments, and Billie also was hit with a sexual harassment suit. In spite of the tribe's troubles, bank officials thought the deal was safe. By owning a bank, the Seminole Tribe hoped to save the fees it pays when it deposits gambling revenue in other banks. "They indicated they would look at it and get back to us," Igler said. "They never got back to us." Seminole officials didn't return phone calls. Although the Seminoles won't own the bank outright, the tribe still owns 9.4 percent of the privately held bank's stock, making it the bank's largest investor, Igler said. The tribe paid an undisclosed price for the shares in November and January. Independent Community Bank was forced to seek new investors last year after it lost $385,000 on a loan to a Miami firm that went broke. That search led the bank to the Seminoles. Since then, the bank has turned profitable, earning $393,000 in the first quarter of this year. That was the one-office bank's first profitable quarter since it opened in 1998. As a result, the bank isn't looking for another buyer, Igler said." - - - - - - Ex-curator charged with stealing from tribe Carved bear statue disappeared from Lac du Flambeau's museum By MEG TURVILLE-HEITZ Journal Sentinel Aug. 29, 2001 Lac du Flambeau - "A former curator for the Wisconsin Historical Society convicted of stealing more than $120,000 worth of Indian artifacts from the society's museum in Madison is now charged with taking items from the Lac du Flambeau tribe's cultural center. David W. Wooley, 53, was convicted in Dane County Circuit Court in June of 14 counts of felony theft and three counts of failure to file state income tax returns for 34 artifacts he admitted taking from the historical society's American Indian collection while he worked there from 1995 to 1999. Wooley quit his job with the society in July 1999 to take a similar job with the Lac du Flambeau tribe's George W. Brown Museum and Cultural Center. The new felony theft charge filed in Vilas County alleges that Wooley removed a carved bear statue from the center while he was the director there. Wooley is free on $10,000 bail and must still meet the bail terms for Dane County pending his Oct. 9 sentencing hearing, where he could receive a maximum of 100 years in prison. An arraignment that had been scheduled for Monday in Vilas County was postponed, and a new date was not set. "When we arrested (Wooley) last October the (state) crime lab took photos of everything in his apartment and we did too," said Capitol Police Detective Sgt. Ed Bardon, who is working with the Lac du Flambeau tribal police on the case. "The statue, unbeknown to us, was something from the George W. Brown Museum picked out of a photo by a former head of the museum." According to the criminal complaint, the bear is one of five 12-inch statues carved by James F. Frechette Jr., in the 1980s to help teach the history of the Menominee people in the schools. Frechette told police that the bear is the beginning of the origin story and without it the Menominee history would be nonsensical. An appraiser told Bardon the bear statue alone could be valued between $12,000 and $15,000. Vilas Country Assistant District Attorney Dewitt Strong says he may request consolidation of the cases in Dane County. Strong notes that the George W. Brown Jr. Museum and Cultural Center has begun an inventory to determine if any other items are missing. State Historical Society Museum director Ann Koski says at least 175 items turned up missing from its collection since a December 1994 inventory, and only 35 items have been recovered. Lt. Ron Mersch of the Lac du Flambeau tribal police says the Wooley case remains open-ended. Wooley's attorney, Christopher Van Wagner, has maintained that Wooley is cooperating with the state's investigation. But Mersch says he is awaiting a response from Wooley or his attorney to written questions posed in May. In June, Van Wagner said Wooley intended to use the items he stole from the Madison museum only for artifact shows or lectures he would give." - - - - - - American oil company stops projects until meeting with B.C. native group Canoe Aug. 29, 2001 "American oil company stops projects until meeting with B.C. native group" FORT ST. JOHN., B.C. (CP) -- "A First Nations group that has been blocking access to a Petro-Canada oilfield north of here for three weeks will meet with another oil company later this week. A spokeswoman for Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said her company was asked to stop work on two projects near the blockade by representatives of the Halfway River First Nation "We were asked last Friday by the Halfway (River) First Nation to shut down two projects we had in the area before we met with them face-to-face to talk about some of the things they've been discussing with a lot of oil companies in the area," said Nadine Barber, spokeswoman for Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The aboriginal group has said Petro-Canada's pipeline in northeastern B.C. will run through traditional native land. Anadarko will meet with the aboriginal group later this week, said Barber. But she said the company consulted with the band before obtaining permits to start work and has followed rules set by British Columbia's Oil and Gas Commission." -------------------------------------- Choctaw gambling lawsuit stinks like first thefts SID SALTER Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal August 29, 2001 At the time that Europeans were introduced into Mississippi in about 1540, there were about 20,000 members of the Choctaw Indian tribe in this state - according to the writings of University of Oklahoma historian Dr. Arrell M Gibson in "History of Mississippi." By 1900, the Choctaws in Mississippi had dwindled to about 2,000. Today, there are 8,300 Mississippi Choctaws. In that seminal history of the state, Gibson outlines the "dimunition of the Choctaw estate in Mississippi" as beginning in 1801, when the U.S. government took 2.5 million acres of Choctaw tribal lands in southeastern Mississippi in the Treaty of Fort Adams, 1 million acres north of Mobile in the then-Southern Mississippi territory, in 1803 in the Treaty of Hoe Buckintoopa, 4 million acres in 1805 in what is now southern Mississippi in the Treaty of Mount Dexter, and 5 million acres in western Choctaw territory in the 1820 Treaty of Doaks Stand. In 1830, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek saw the Choctaws cede their remaining lands - 10.5 million acres. That's a total dimunition of 23 million acres of land. At a round figure of $1,200 per acre, that's $27.6 billion worth of land by today's values, and that may be an understatement. Of the original 23 million acres, the Choctaws now own only 30,000 acres - some they had to repurchase in recent years. In return for those cessions, the Choctaws were treated to the joys of smallpox, syphilis and other gifts from the intruding Europeans. They were forced off their lands and moved west to reservation lands in Oklahoma along the fabled Trail of Tears. The Choctaws were robbed, raped, bought, sold, herded like cattle to reservation lands and murdered with impunity in Mississippi between 1540 and 1900. After that time, they were left to subsist on reservation lands with poverty, joblessness and illiteracy as their constant companions. Schools were poor, healthcare was scant and the once-pride tribe was left as a cultural oddity clustered mostly in Neshoba County. In that sorry economic state, alcoholism rates on the reservation regularly registered in the 25 percent range well into the 1970s. There was the Choctaw Fair for the tourists, a small market for utilitarian Choctaw baskets and beadwork and the brutal but enticing game of stickball to keep a few Mississippians interested, but that was about it. The truth is that until the early 1990s, most Mississippians knew little about the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and far fewer gave a tinker's damn about them. But that all changed in the early 1990s when the tribe took advantage of a federal law that allowed gaming on Indian reservations. Under the leadership of Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Chief Phillip Martin, the tribe launched the Silver Star Casino in 1994 in rural Neshoba County on what had previously been swampy bottomlands. Finding financial backing for the original project was difficult in the extreme. The Silver Star was a rousing success - drawing gamblers from across the Southeast and helping to propel Mississippi to the status of the nation's largest gaming destination between Atlantic City and Las Vegas. But it wasn't only the gaming enterprise in which the Choctaws found success. At 1998 study by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development indicated that Choctaw unemployment had dropped from 75 percent in 1979 when the tribe got its first GM wire harness factory to the present four percent. The casino, nine other manufacturing enterprises and a construction company currently generate over $172.6 million in wages and over $4.8 million in state income taxes and provides some 7,000 jobs - more than half for non-Indians. The Choctaws pulled themselves up by the bootstraps after white people almost annihilated them physically and economically. Now comes a lawsuit, filed by the employee of a Jackson attorney, seeking to "reorganize" the Choctaws' gaming compact with the state that was negotiated between former Gov. Kirk Fordice and Martin. Has Neshoba County got some legitimate compact beefs? Probably. But Hinds County? Or any Mississippi taxpayer outside Neshoba County? What a joke... Only in America would someone look at the victims of a 22.99 million acre land robbery and try to find a way to make them look like the bad guys. Sid Salter is Perspective Editor/Columnist at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson and a syndicated Mississippi political columnist for two decades. - - - - - - Blumenthal still firm on recognition Attorney general says battle will continue; Simmons warns of change at Woodstock forum The Day 8/30/2001 Woodstock - Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday he would fight the federal recognition of some Indian groups and vowed he would go to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. Addressing a crowd of nearly 500 people who attended a forum here to learn more about the acknowledgment process and the preliminary recognition of the Nipmuc Nation, Blumenthal reiterated his oft-used phrase that the recognition process "is broken and must be fixed." He said he would continue to sue the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in instances in which he believes the agency has not followed its regulations. "This issue is about fairness, impartiality and integrity in the process," he said. "It's an issue that has a profound effect on all of us because these (recognition) decisions are irreversible and they can have profound and lasting impacts on our communities." Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, were the main speakers at the regional forum at the Hyde School Cultural Center. They were invited by local officials who have been barraged with questions from residents about the preliminary recognition of the Nipmuc Nation. The BIA granted preliminary approval of the tribe's petition last January, but newly appointed leaders at the bureau have put the decision on hold to review it. Though based in Massachusetts, the Nipmucs, who have a financial backer, are said to be eyeing land in Union as well as Sturbridge, Mass., for a possible casino. Blumenthal has questioned the circumstances under which the tribe won preliminary approval by appointees of President Clinton. Some critics have accused BIA administrators of overturning staff findings that the Nipmucs failed several of the government's seven mandatory criteria for acknowledgment. The BIA has said that it recognized two North Stonington tribes last year after the bureau's former director, Kevin Gover, overturned his staff's recommendations that both tribes failed the government's mandatory criteria. Residents at Wednesday's forum questioned how state and local officials can stop the federal government from recognizing tribes that don't meet the standards. Blumenthal said he is currently suing the BIA to overturn its preliminary approval of the Eastern Pequots and Paucatuck Pequots. He also said he would seek additional legal actions if the BIA inappropriately grants acknowledgment to tribal groups. "We'll take this as high as it will go. The U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled on many of these issues" related to tribal recognition, he said. Simmons told residents that if they are worried about casino development in their corner of the state they should get more involved in following the recognition efforts of the Nipmucs. A casino in northeastern Connecticut or just over the border in Massachusetts, he said, would bring "dramatic and permanent changes" to the region. He also said Congress has called for investigations of the BIA and is considering changes in how the agency recognizes tribes. Several Nipmucs attended the meeting and some criticized Blumenthal and Simmons for their public stand on recognition matters. "Why are you spending taxpayer money to do this?" said William Gould of Killingly, a Nipmuc council member. "Why are you trying to stop the Nipmucs if you don't know the merits of our claim?" Eric Gould, a Nipmuc member who lives in Brooklyn, said he felt it was unfair for state officials to intervene in his tribe's petition. The recognition process, he said, is already too stringent and puts too much of a burden on tribes to prove their claims. "It's ridiculous to even think that you should oppose us," Gould said. "You've never had to prove who you are." Simmons said that tribal recognition is granted only to groups that can prove they are eligible, just as the federal government requires proof of eligibility from those who seek other benefits. Although he is opposing the tribal claims of the Paucatucks and Eastern Pequots, Blumenthal said he has taken no position on the merits of the Nipmuc petition and has requested a copy of the tribe's petition from the BIA. Glen Elliot, who has lived in Woodstock for 25 years, said he is worried the Nipmucs will want to put a casino here. "I don't want to see this town change," Elliot said. "It's a quiet corner. I don't want to see it become a casino corner." Eric Gould said residents and state and local officials are unfairly linking the tribal recognition process with Indian casino developments. Recognition of a tribe, he said, does not automatically mean it will open a casino. Simmons said in Connecticut it is difficult to separate tribal recognition from casinos. "There is no question that there is a link between federal recognition and the casino benefit," Simmons said. Several officials from Preston and North Stonington, which are opposing the recognition of the Paucatucks and Easterns, also attended the forum. Nicholas H. Mullane II, North Stonington's first selectman, told residents that if an Indian casino is built here it would permanently damage the town's quality of life - - - - - - Backers step up efforts to legalize hemp Petition drive for signatures to target weekend concertgoers" By DENISE D. TUCKER, Argus Leader August 30, 20 "Organizers of a petition drive to legalize hemp production in South Dakota hope to obtain thousands of signatures this weekend. More than 20 people gathered Wednesday at Great Plains Coffee House in Sioux Falls to discuss gathering signatures at the Seventh Annual "Bash in the Grass" concert event near Volga. Petitions began circulating in May. Backers need 13,010 valid signatures by May 2002 to get the initiated measure on the November 2002 general election ballot. It would allow the planting, harvesting, possession and sale of industrial hemp in South Dakota if it contained no more than 1 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the substance in marijuana that gets smokers high. More than 20 other states are pushing similar measures. State and federal agriculture and law enforcement officials oppose the legalization effort. Even if state voters approved, federal laws will still prevent farmers from legally growing the crop. But supporters aren't daunted and are excited about this weekend's recruitment effort. "Apparently we've got a real good venue," said Bob Newland, president of SoDak-NORML, an affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "It's a fun place to motivate a lot of people and to get our message out." The group plans to display literature, circulate petitions and register voters. Newland, 53, has acquired 3,000 signatures to date and plans to file 16,000 on the petitions to the Legislative Research Council. Tea resident Jason Lind, 23, plans to help. "I've been supporting this cause for a while," Lind said. "I got in this because of the loss of trees and fuel situation. You can make a lot of things from hemp. This shirt is made of 55 percent hemp." Newland said opponents are "clouding the issue," and are encouraging voters to oppose industrial hemp by saying supporters want to "smoke dope recreationally." Newland said the group thinks farmers should be able to legally grow industrial hemp and that sick people should be able to use cannabis as a medicine. "And should adults be able to cop a buzz any way they feel like? We think it is un-American to say anything but yes," Newland said. "But, if you disagree with us on that issue, it does not reduce the absurdity of denying farmers the right to market hemp." Lind said people often confuse marijuana with hemp. "You would have to smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole to feel any effect," he said of hemp. "With hemp there is no danger of getting high." In the past Legislative session, state lawmakers killed two bills that would have allowed medicinal use of marijuana and another that would have allowed hemp production." - - - - - - Navajos plan Sun Dance despite site's desecration By MARK SHAFFER and TOM ZOELLNER, The Arizona Republic August 30. 2001 FLAGSTAFF - "Supporters of a controversial Native American dance site bulldozed this month by the Hopi Tribe said they are preparing another Sun Dance this weekend, although probably not on Hopi land. Meanwhile, traditional Navajos still living on land awarded to the Hopis nearly 30 years ago in the Big Mountain area said they knew nothing about the planned prayer activities. "Every day is a day of prayers for all of us who remain there on our land," said longtime Navajo resister Louise Benally, who condemned the Hopis as having an "illegal government" that doesn't respect the religious rights of others. Benally refused to say if local Navajos would participate in the ceremonies. The Sun Dance, originally part of Lakota culture, was brought to the disputed lands 16 years ago and quickly became a symbol of the Navajo resisters. Organizers said it is a four-day ceremony that seeks healing among Indian peoples. But Hopi officials said it has brought only pain and it is being stirred up by 10 Navajo families who have refused to sign an accommodation with the Hopi Tribe. "These few Navajo individuals who call themselves resisters, with the help of outside agitators, blatantly refuse to respect and abide by the laws of the Hopi Tribe," the tribe said in a statement. "They have brought civil unrest to the Hopi people, terrorized our villages with violence and threats, and continue to destabilize the peace and security of the Hopi people. These are actions we will not tolerate." About 35 Sun Dance supporters said they will have another ceremony Sunday near the site, at a field known as Camp Anna Mae. Among the participants will be medicine men from the Lakota tribe in South Dakota. A daylong prayer ceremony, preceded by a sweat lodge ceremony on Saturday, is intended as a peaceful gesture to "set the spirits walking" from the desecrated site, said Gregory Hoddy, a Scottsdale computer network engineer who plans to participate. Hoddy said that if the Hopi Tribe denies permits for the ceremony, it will be held on nearby land partitioned to the Navajo Nation as part of the land settlement between the two tribes. The Aug. 17 bulldozing of the Sun Dance site has rekindled emotions over the bitter land dispute, in which thousands of Navajos were pressured to relocate to new lands, most of them near the community of Sanders in northeastern Arizona. Federal officials have said in recent months that they hoped for a comprehensive settlement by the end of the year to remove the few Navajos remaining on the land awarded to the Hopis. But the Hopis' aggressive stand to assert its rule over the land could be throwing a monkey wrench in the process, some federal officials said. Key Watchman, a Big Mountain area resident who is a delegate to the United Nations on indigenous matters, said the destruction of the religious site has been reported to the U.N. and a special mediator is expected to visit the area soon." - - - - - - Ho-Chunk one of 15 finalists By JODI RAVE LEE, Lincoln Journal Star = Aug. 30, 2001 "The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska received national recognition Wednesday for its innovative approach to handling the challenges of running a government. Ho-Chunk Inc., the tribe's economic development corporation, was named one of 15 national finalists in the Innovations in American Government Award, a program of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "It feels great," Lance Morgan, chief executive officer of Ho-Chunk Inc., said Wednesday. "It's a great achievement for the Winnebago Tribe." Said Gail Christopher, executive director of the Innovations in American Government Award: "Ho-Chunk has dramatically strengthened the economic vitality of the Winnebago Tribe. It's a powerful force for making a difference in the daily lives of citizens, and it greatly deserves this recognition." Since Ho-Chunk Inc. was founded in 1994, the Winnebago Reservation unemployment rate has dropped from 70 percent to 20 percent. The tribe's discretionary annual income has also increased dramatically, from $150,000 in 1990 to $50 million a year today. The Winnebago Tribe, located in northeastern Nebraska, can count itself among 15 winners, including three federal, seven state, two city, a county program and a public school system. Each government operation receives a $20,000 grant. Five of the 15 winning programs are eligible for a $100,000 award, which will be announced Oct. 18 in Washington, D.C. Harvard University's government award is a collaborative partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government, which aims to improve government performance, strengthen creative leadership in the public sector and focus public discussion on governmental roles and responsibilities. Morgan credits tribal leaders of 20 years ago for creative leadership and a strong vision to improve a weakened and diminished reservation economy. Early attempts failed because the tribe had no money, he said. A decade later it had a casino. Still determined to succeed, tribal council members agreed to gamble with casino profits and invest in the future. They also deemed it important to separate tribal business from tribal politics. "In 1994 we made a long-term commitment to developing our local economy," said John Blackhawk, Winnebago tribal chairman. "Our decision to insulate our economic development efforts has proven successful for our community and our membership." ------------------------------------------ Flowers calls for backing of tribe's bid Eastern leader says campaign to block tribe full of 'untruths' By Eileen McNamara The Day 8/30/2001 North Stonington - The leader of the Eastern Pequots of North Stonington is calling on Indian leaders nationally to back her tribe's bid for federal recognition and is accusing Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and leaders of three local towns of spreading "untruths" in their efforts to block the tribe's recognition. In an open letter this week in Indian Country Today, a national publication that covers tribes and tribal issues, Marcia Jones Flowers, the newly elected chairwoman of the Eastern Pequots, accuses Blumenthal and the leaders of Preston, Ledyard and North Stonington of waging a "well-funded" public relations campaign in their quest to block the Easterns' recognition. "It is unfortunate that we as Indian people still face political and media attacks when we dare to claim the rights we are assured by our creator and federal law," Flowers wrote in her letter. "This non-Indian media effort has been so well planned and so well funded that many members of Congress and the public have begun to believe some of the outrageous stories these people are spreading." Blumenthal on Wednesday said he has participated in the tribe's recognition process to ensure its objectivity. "As I have said time and time again, my duty is to all Connecticut citizens, Indians and non-Indians alike, to ensure that the federal recognition process is fair, open, and honest," Blumenthal said. "Clear and complete compliance with these criteria is required ... in light of the far-reaching, irrevocable implications of federal tribal recognition." In her letter, Flowers asked Indian leaders to fight recent attacks on the tribal recognition process and to call on national Indian organizations to support the Easterns. "We pledge to you that we will use every weapon in our arsenal to defend the sovereignty of the Eastern Pequots and Indian tribes throughout this country," she said. Blumenthal and the towns, Flowers implies in her letter, have sought to sway public opinion against tribes seeking acknowledgment by claiming the Easterns could impact the jurisdiction of the towns and state if they are recognized, and could seek land claims and a casino. The Easterns and Paucatucks both have said they want to develop casinos and both have wealthy partners financing their recognition efforts. Both groups also have said they would wait until they are recognized to make land claims to secure a reservation. Federally recognized Indian tribes can seek trust status for their reservations, which removes land from the jurisdiction of states and towns. In Connecticut, federally recognized tribes also can negotiate to open Las Vegas-style casinos on their reservations. Blumenthal and the leaders of Preston, Ledyard and North Stonington have sued to overturn the preliminary acknowledgment the BIA granted last year to the Easterns and Paucatucks, partly on allegations that the bureau's former leader, Kevin Gover, overturned the recommendations of bureau researchers. The researchers found that both the Easterns and Paucatucks failed to meet two of the seven mandatory criteria for federal acknowledgment. The BIA experts found that the Paucatucks and Easterns could not prove they had maintained continuous social and political ties throughout their histories. Gover acknowledged the deficiencies, but overturned the findings and argued that the state's long recognition of the historic Eastern Pequot tribe and its Lantern Hill reservation overcame the evidentiary shortcomings. Blumenthal and the towns have alleged that Gover and other former BIA officials appointed by President Clinton pursued a policy to acknowledge tribes, even if the groups did not meet the government's stringent recognition criteria. Flowers' letter comes at a time when the BIA's newly appointed political leader has said he intends to follow a different course on recognition than his predecessor. Neal A. McCaleb, chosen by President Bush to head the BIA, has vowed to follow the recommendations of his research staff and said he believes in the integrity of the acknowledgment criteria. The Easterns argue that because Indians along the Eastern seaboard came into contact with European settlers hundreds of years before western tribes, their histories are much harder to document. In its latest report to the BIA, the tribe argues that bureau researchers should re-examine their definitions of Indian and Indian tribes when reviewing the Eastern Pequots' petition - - - - - - Choctaw festival to start four-day run Tulsa World 8/31/01 TUSKAHOMA -- The annual Choctaw Labor Day Festival gets under way Friday for a four-day run at the tribe's Capitol grounds. Some 25,000 people are expected to attend the festival, which will feature entertainment, sales booths, food and amusements for the children. Musical entertainment also will be held Friday through Sunday. Friday concerts begin at 6 p.m. with Lynn Anderson, the Bellamy Brothers and John Anderson. Saturday concerts also begin at 6 p.m. with Mindy McCready, T.G. Sheppard and Tanya Tucker. Sunday gospel singing features the Crabb Family, Suzy Luchsinger and the Martins, as well as numerous local groups. Also, on Saturday, the annual Choctaw Nation Princess Pageant will be held at 10 a.m. in the amphitheater. Meanwhile, the Choctaw Village will open for tours throughout the weekend where storytelling and other traditional activities are to take place. A free lunch will be offered Monday immediately after Chief Gergory Pyle gives the state of the nation address. - - - - - Tribal group mulls chat sale options By ROD WALTON Tulsa World 8/31/01 QUAPAW -- After winning a crucial battle to sell chat, tribal landowners say the war over the details has just begun. The Bureau of Indian Affairs recently lifted a 4-year-old moratorium that prohibited the Quapaws from selling the gravel-like refuse from mining operations in the Tar Creek Superfund area. Now the key to helping the landowners benefit from selling the mine chat -- something non- Indian landowners have always been able to do -- is having the BIA help them every step of the way, some tribal members say. That assistance would include determining just how much chat there is and what the fair-market value would be. The only other problem would be convincing Quapaws to trust federal authorities. And that is no small task. "They have a history of screwing us," Quapaw Tribal Councilor John Berrey said. "We're trying to forget about that, but we're still scared." The greatest fear, he said, is losing millions of dollars through bad oversight of the chat piles. At least 75 million tons of chat are piled on properties above the old mines of Picher and Cardin, with the fair-market value of each ton guessed at anywhere between 40 cents and $4. "Say it's worth $1 a ton," Berrey pointed out. "You're looking at $75 million." Quapaw Indians own 70 percent of the land around the Superfund site. They receive land- use rents from people who live there, and the BIA already handles those financial details. Some Quapaws want the agency to do the same when it comes to the chat. Yet tribal members believe they need to know exactly what their holdings are worth. Otherwise, Berrey noted, they can get ripped off. "If my grandma passed away and her estate went to the bank," he said, "it's the responsibility of the bank to tell me what's in the estate." Calls to BIA officials Thursday were not returned. Quapaw leaders like Berrey and tribal Chairwoman Tamara Summerfield had pressured the agency for years to lift the ban. Chat can be mixed with other products to make concrete and asphalt. They were encouraged when Oklahoman Neal McCaleb was sworn in as BIA director last month. The lifting of the ban happened within weeks of McCaleb's move. Yet distrust of the BIA remains common in those tribal circles, authorities say, because the agency imposed what they believe was an unfair ban and because the BIA is considered a "potentially responsible party" to the Tar Creek damage. The agency leased the land the zinc and lead mining companies whose work polluted the air, ground and water. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has spent more than $50 million cleaning up the Ottawa County sites. Berrey said he hopes the tribe and the BIA can come to a sales agreement on the chat and avoid going to court. "We're not asking for reparations for Indian atrocities," he said. "We're just wanting them to take care of business." A public meeting to discuss the landowners' chat-sale options will be 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Quapaw Community Center. - - - - - - Honors fall on Haney, McCaleb Tulsa World 8/31/01 State Sen. Enoch Kelly Haney, who is sculpting the statue that will stand atop the state Capitol dome, won a regional honor Thursday night for his leadership in the American Indian community. The Oklahoma Native American Business Development Center presented the award at a dinner at Gilcrease Museum. Awards also went to Neal McCaleb, the new director of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs; state Sen. Charles Ford; and state Rep. Lloyd Fields. Haney, a Seminole Democrat, received his award from the Dallas region of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency. A member of the Seminole Nation, Haney won a competition to sculpt the work to top the Capitol dome. He declined the $50,000 prize. The name of his sculpture is "The Guardian." McCaleb received his award from the Oklahoma Indian Times. McCaleb, an Oklahoma native and member of the Chickasaw Nation, was sworn as the BIA head in June. He had been the secretary of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and an eight-year member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Ford and Fields were named Legislators of the Year. Ford, R-Tulsa, has been the president of the Oklahoma Senate's historical preservation fund and has been instrumental in the permanent display of Indian artwork at the state Capitol. Fields, D-McAlester, was honored for his work on legislation that has benefited American Indians. - - - - - - Delaware Tribe of Indians Receives Grant for Wellness Center Delaware Indian News August 23, 2001 [Note: Only a portion of this article was run about a week ago] The Delaware Tribe of Indians has been awarded a $750,000 2001 Indian Community Development Block grant from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to construct a Wellness Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The proposed site will be in the Delaware owned Lenape Addition located at the corner of Tuxedo Boulevard and Madison Boulevard. Due to the outstanding working relationship between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Delaware Tribe of Indians on other tribal building projects within the state, the Delaware Tribe has appointed the Corps with management of construction of this facility. The Center is the fourth phase of a campus development based on a Delaware Community Development Plan adopted by the tribal council. Phase I and 2 consisted of a recently completed 1.2 million dollar Community Center and Child Care Facility. Phase 3 is an Elders Housing Complex scheduled to begin construction this fall. The Wellness Center will provide the setting for lifetime fitness concepts, regular screenings for diabetes, blood pressure, immunizations, physical therapy, aqua therapy, walking, exercise, nutrition education and more. The Center will focus on the care and preventative health maintenance for the elders of the community. The 4,700 square feet facility will house an isometric weight room, aqua therapy room, a walking track, training rooms, locker areas and clinical examination rooms. Since the tribe's restoration of federal recognition by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs in October of 1996, recognition that was illegally stripped from them in 1979, the Delaware Tribe of Indians has been on a fast track to provide a government and facilities that would serve the needs of the Delaware people. The primary focus of the tribal government is to provide care and services to the most vulnerable of the population, the elders and the children. This Center will aid in that quest. "We are extremely pleased to be able to construct the Wellness Center," said Delaware Chief Dee Ketchum. "This will be one more opportunity to aid our people and provide another facility that will benefit not only the Delaware Tribe but citizens of Bartlesville and the surrounding areas as well." The Delaware Tribe of Indians Wellness Center is scheduled to begin Environmental Review in October 2001 with a target construction finish date of Fall 2003. For more information about the Wellness Center, the Tribe and its programs, call (918) 336-5272. - - - - - - Making peace with the Wampanoags Military to consult over ancient artifacts By MICHAEL PAULSON Boston Globe +.shtml 8/31/2001 BOURNE - "Wampanoag Indian leaders, whose people have called Cape Cod home for more than 10,000 years, yesterday signed an agreement with the Massachusetts National Guard requiring the military to consult with the tribe about the handling of human remains and artifacts found on the 22,000-acre Massachusetts Military Reservation. The agreement is a capstone to several years of warming relations between the Wampanoag tribes and the military, which had fought for decades over land-takings, environmental protection, and the handling of archeological finds on the military reservation. The sprawling area, which includes Camp Edwards Army National Guard Base and Otis Air National Guard Base, straddles Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich. Over the past several years, military officials have found rock carvings, arrowheads, and a variety of tribal implements on the reservation. They expect to find more as they proceed with the cleanup of land damaged by years of shelling in field artillery practice. The Guard last used live ammunition on the land in 1988. ''In the past, the relationship between the tribes and the military has been tenuous at best,'' said Glenn Marshall, president of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which has accused the US government of taking land for the military reservation without compensating Indians. The tribe once claimed 55,000 square miles of territory, but now has 55 acres. ''But now, we've forged some door openings, and all parties are willing to sit down and discuss what's good for the earth,'' Marshall said. ''The US government and the military have not been great environmentalists, but they're learning, and they're trying to correct their mistakes.'' Marshall said tribal members believe the land now used by the military was once home to a large settlement of Wampanoag Indians, who would summer along the ocean and winter inland. ''We know there are some burial sites out there, and some historic sites for Indians,'' he said. Military officials said they are honored to be working cooperatively with the Indians. At a ceremony yesterday atop an observation point looking out over the shell-shocked land, National Guard leaders presented tribal officials with local water, a bowl of earth, and a clay pottery pitcher to symbolize their respect for the land and its products. The seven-page agreement requires the Guard to consult the tribe about how military activities might affect ''cultural resources,'' which include historic tribal sites, artifacts, earth works, and certain plants, fossils, and stones. The Guard is required to report regularly to the tribe about actions that affect property of traditional, religious, or cultural importance, and to alert the tribe immediately if it discovers human remains. The tribe would then be permitted to advise the military about how to proceed. The agreement was signed by Brigadier General George W. Keefe, adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard, and by Beverly M. Wright, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the only federally recognized tribe in Massachusetts. The military signed the agreement with the Martha's Vineyard tribe because it is federally recognized and therefore permitted to negotiate government to government agreements. But both the military and the Aquinnah tribe acknowledged the interests of the state-recognized Mashpee tribe, which was represented at the signing ceremony and acknowledged in the document. ''This is very important to us, because the land is where our ancient ones are. Our relatives are in this soil, and the memorandum sets forth regulations and procedures that if things are found here on this military reservation that they will be respected and we will be notified,'' Wright said. ''This is a new beginning with the military and this base, and we certainly look forward to working with them. It's a very good, positive change.'' Keefe said the agreement completes an eight-year effort to improve relations between the military and the local Indian tribes, in part by cleaning up the environment on the base. ''This is an honor to be able to sit with our Native American friends and to be able to sign an agreement such as this,'' he said. ''These are areas of historical significance, not only to Native Americans, but to all of us as Americans.'' Artifacts were deposited on the land by Indians traveling through the area, according to Michael A. Ciaranca, national resources manager for the Massachusetts National Guard. Many of the artifacts found previously are being stored at Boston University and the Public Archeology Lab in Rhode Island, according to Ciaranca." ------------------------------------------ Surviving family ties in limited space By JOHN POTTER Billings Gazette nion/potter.inc September 1, 2001 "When I got married I inherited an instant family — that would be my wife, of course, and her young daughters from a previous situation. Now look, I’ve been through a lot in my life. I survived my reservation years without wasting any stupid tourists or dying of alcoholism. I’ve been shot at, stabbed, beaten and jailed. I survived my American Indian Movement days, I survived the “music” of the 80s and I even survived Y2K. As an artist, I’ve survived a life of relative obscurity and living below the poverty level. But nothing — NOTHING — that I’ve survived and endured in my long life could ’ve prepared me for living in a house full of females. The cat and I are the only males in the house, and we bonded early. His is the only bathroom I have access to. Let me introduce you to the women in my life that I love so dearly: There’s my wife, Janet (age not available), also known as “She who defies age, authority, and reason.” There’s daughter No. 1, Liza (almost 13 years old, God help us), also known as “She who defies gravity, explanation, and who WILL be heard throughout the known universe.” Daughter No. 2, Frances (age 10), AKA “She who will be heard at even greater decibel levels.” And then there’s Lily (age 5 or 6), AKA “She who must chew everything to bits, dig holes in the yard, drink from the toilet and pee uncontrollably.” Household pet As you may or may not have guessed, Lily is the puppy of the household, and she’s only 5 or 6 in DOG years — about 10 or 11 months in people time. Lily is a golden lab mixed with something else — something alien, I think — probably Ewok from the forest moon of Endor, which would explain the short, furry, big-eyed, barks-with-a-lisp thing. She also has a little bit of miracle in her. Lily was run down by a teenage driver when she was only about 4 months old, hit by both front and rear tires of the car. She lay in the street with her head smashed in and right side of her body flattened. She was horribly battered and bloody when Janet scooped her up in her arms. That’s where Lily should’ve died. But somehow she survived. Now, she is the happiest, smilingest, wiggliest and slobberiest dog I’ve ever seen. She ain’t the sharpest ax in the shed, but I guess I wouldn’t be either if I’d been run over by a car as a baby, instead of just dropped on my head. And despite the scars of the accident still visible around her right eye and cheek, she’s quite sleek and quite lovely. Puppy love Her beauty has not gone unnoticed, either. Bruno, the Chocolate Lab, AKA “He who must wear a lampshade around his neck,” has taken a sudden manly interest in our fair Lily. You might say it’s one very lop-sided case of puppy love. I’m not sure what’s up with the lamp-shade thing. Does he get better reception of “The Dog Channel” that way? Is this just something he wears to get chicks, or is he hoping for a signal from the mother ship? Whatever it is, he’s not gonna score with our Lily. I’ve taken Lily to the vet today to have the flower of her emerging womanhood nipped in the bud. With everything we’ve survived in our lives, the last thing Lily and I need is a bunch of little alien puppies runnin’ around here. And with MY luck, every last one of ’em would be female." - - - - - - Potawatomis schedule month of activities to promote wellness Shawnee News-Star September 1, 2001 "September has been proclaimed National Native American Wellbriety Month by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Business Committee, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Behavioral Health/Substance Abuse Services. Wellbriety means to be sober and well, living a life that is balanced physically, mentally, spiritually and culturally. Wellbriety includes freedom from alcohol, drugs and family violence. The month's theme is "We Recover Together; Family, Friends and Community." A series of activities are scheduled throughout the month to celebrate recovery and honor those who have changed their lives. Open house and reception will be 2 p.m. today at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Wellness Center, 1302 S. Gordon Cooper Drive. The fun run/walk and rally will be 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at the CPN pow wow grounds. T-shirts and Native American in Recovery medallions will be given to participants who finish the course. There is no registration charge. On Saturday, Sept. 15, a community gathering will view the premiere of the video "Sacred Hoop Journeys: Healing of Nations" at 7 p.m. at the Wellness Center. Talking circle and sweat ceremony will be 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Wellness Center. An inter-tribal dance and dinner will be 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at the pow wow grounds." - - - - - - Marks across time For some California Indians, facial tattoos make a bold connection to a fading tradition By RACHEL URANGA The Sacramento Bee August 31, 2001 "Three evenly spaced lines, as thin as a quarter's edge, run from the pink of L. Frank's frail bottom lip to the ridge of her chin. At night, in her dreams, the lines dance into the past and reach out to long-buried members of her ancestral tribes, the Tongva and Ajachmem. Invasions, relocations, intermarriage and, most of all, time have eroded the significance California's indigenous tribes placed on facial tattoos. But, concerned the nearly invisible tradition would fade altogether, a group of American Indians has set out to reclaim the fading practice. "After I got the tattoos, there was an emotional change," says Frank, watching the cars stream by her kitchen window in Santa Rosa. "I felt responsible, a responsibility for my ancestors." Five years ago, Frank, a 49-year-old artist, walked into a tattoo parlor in hopes "of holding hands with the past," and left with a piece of her culture. "Some people think I am a radical," she says. "These tattoos make waves, it says we are not extinct." Only dusty history books and some ailing elders remember the deep lines that often were etched in the faces of members of California's indigenous tribes. But the renewed interest is salvaging the diminishing tradition. Frank calls it the "Indian Renaissance." Sage La Pena, a Sacramentan from the Wintu tribe, sees it as "making a whole person." La Pena, Frank and a handful of other West Coast American Indians have turned to the modern tattoo artist rather than tribe elders to fill the void time has left in the tradition. Scattered throughout the state, the group is loosely named after the configurations marking their faces: the "one hundred and elevens." The design differs slightly depending on the people's tribe, their beliefs and the regions they live in. But all "one hundred and elevens" share a cultural bond deepened by a physical mark. "People nowadays are like detached seaweeds -- they don't have a root," Frank says. "But when blood calls you, it is too strong to deny." It is difficult to pin down the origins of American Indian facial tattoos. Early ethnographers must have been frustrated as they investigated the practice in the early 1900s. Their inquiries yielded half-truths and contradictions from a people who guarded their practices. Wendy Rose was intrigued by the disjointed accounts while a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student in 1978. The following year she published a study on facial tattooing among California Indians. "It is different from region to region, clan to clan, even within a tribe," she says from Fresno, where she lives. In California, she says, chin tattoos often were associated with clan membership, rank or coming of age. Another commonly recorded association was spiritual. Women were marked in preparation for the afterlife, so spirits could distinguish an old woman from an old man. Desert tribes used cactus or porcupine needles to inscribe the tattoos. In other areas, obsidian and flint were used, and coal, roots, charcoal or minerals were used to color the tattoo. The most elaborate tattoos emerged from the Yuki clan, in the Mendocino area, Rose says. Zigzag lines ran from the forehead down the bridge of the nose. Sometimes, dotted, straight or squiggly lines streamed down the cheek, like a flood of tears. While facial tattooing was a common practice on the West Coast, it is not exclusive to the area. There are records of whole-body tattoos in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, Rose says. But by the 1880s, the tattoos were less prevalent because of series of local laws prohibiting and punishing "Indian behavior," says Al Schwartz, assistant professor of Native American history at California State University, San Marcos. In California, the combination of enslavement, the reservation system, racism and later the establishment of re-education camps corroded Indian Americans' culture, he says. "The whole point was to do away with identity. As long as people have identity, they have a sense of place," Schwartz says from his San Marcos home. "They had this saying, 'Kill the Indians, save the man.' Anything like (tattoos) was viewed by the authorities as a savage practice, and part of their job was to make them not indulge in 'savage' practices. "It's a huge statement when you have been through this long period of time when you have been cast as a marginal person, then you put these thing on and there's no way of getting this off," Schwartz says. "You are saying, 'You have to recognize me.' " Sage La Pena, of the Wintu tribe, knows all about such feelings. During her teenage years, cultural issues weren't of great importance to her: "I just wanted to be like everyone else. I wanted to go to the mall and go skating," says the Sacramento woman. But the stories of her father and other tribe elders, and tales of the re-education camps, lingered in her mind, formless, until more than a decade later. That's when she decided to get a facial tattoo. When La Pena walked up the stairs to the tattoo parlor four years ago, she was pregnant with her third son, Raven. "I felt excited, as if I had been waiting for this a long time," she says. She brought an abalone shell filled with white sage and angelic root to the tattoo parlor. She held the shell in her palm, lit the herbs and, after a few moments, blew it out. Smoke swirled around her as she slowly lifted the shell over her body. After this cleansing of impurities, she was ready. When it was over, La Pena walked to a mirror. "I've seen this on my face before," she thought, and she remembered the marks from her childhood dreams. "People have told me, 'Oh, how could you ruin your beautiful face with that thing?' People roll their eyes, they get grossed out, you name it," she says. But La Pena, a tour guide at the California Indian Museum and an ethnobotanist specializing in American Indian tradition, doesn't fret. "I knew what I was doing getting the tattoo," she says. "It's helping me to the next step of life, to becoming a whole person in my life." Besides, she says, "It's my birthright to have this tattoo, my heritage." It's a sentiment Frank shares and rarely forgets, even as others try to peel away her fortitude. "Other natives still step back from you; they do scare some people. That is when I go out of my way to smile," she says. At the supermarket, in the arcade, at the bank, even at her own front door, Frank meets with curiosity. "Yesterday, I was in a video arcade and a bunch of kids, they pointed at me and shouted and said, 'Hey that's cool. "People of all ages come up to me and talk," Frank says. "It happens nearly every time I go out ... they either come up to me or stand and gape. On certain days when I am in a bad mood, I don't want people looking at me. That just a selfish moment." Frank learned about her ancestry though conversations with her grandfather and from history books. In them, she discovered sketches of girls with black designs painted across their cheeks and lines along their chins. Nine years ago, a tattooist etched four thin, vertical lines about the length of a business card, two on each side of her cheekbones. "I just thought the physical (marking) would happen," she says. "I would just get the tattoo and that would be it. But it marked me in an eternal way." For her 45th birthday, she once again walked into a tattoo parlor. This time, she got lines along her chin. "It has to do with being correct in the eyes of my ancestors," she says. "For me, (the tattoos) are a way of holding hands with my sisters, my aunties, my grandmother, through time." - - - - - - Winnebago Tribe Plans River Ferryboat Press & Dakotan August 31, 2001 WINNEBAGO, Neb. (AP) -- "Tired of taking the long way around to bridges to get over the Missouri River, the Winnebago Tribe hopes to soon cross on the water. The tribe announced Thursday it has received a $771,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration to develop ferryboat service between the northeast Nebraska and northwest Iowa branches of its reservation. Another $2.2 million is being sought from the Federal Highway Administration. Both grants require partial matches from the tribe, most likely through in-kind services. The ferryboat should provide an economic boost to the tribe, which spends $330,000 annually transporting members from Nebraska to its Winnevagas Casino in Sloan, Iowa, where over 400 people work. With more economic development planned, a central access point is needed to avoid the 45-mile, one-way trip, said Vince Bass, the tribe's vice chairman."